UNITED NATIONS: Israel’s new surge in settlement building in the Palestinian territories is destroying hopes for any return to peace talks, the Palestinians’ envoy to the United Nations said yesterday.
“Israel’s illegal actions continue to undermine any and all efforts to resume the peace process, including via direct negotiations,” Palestian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the UN Security Council. Plans announced this week to build thousands of new settlements inside the West Bank and close to East Jerusalem have angered the Palestinian leadership and been condemned by UN envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry and leading UN Security Council members. Mansour called the move “blatant provocation” in a letter to the Security Council calling for international “condemnation and rejection of all of Israel’s illegal settlement activities.”
“It is clear that Israel has chosen to entrench this occupation to the detriment of the Palestinian people, the Israeli people and the prospects for peace between them and in the region as a whole,” Mansour said.
The city of Jerusalem is seeking to expand the settlement of Gilo beyond annexed east Jerusalem.
